Flowers
by ignorethisiwas12
Summary: Cooped up in a flower shop on a rainy day, a certain blond kunoichi notices some similarities.


**Title****:** Flowers**  
><strong>**Author****: **TinaBanina96**  
><strong>**Summary:** Cooped up in a flower shop on a rainy day, a certain blond kunoichi notices some similarities.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong>** A little one-shot through the mind of Ino. My knowledge of flowers stems from a lot of Googling, so some of the meanings might be off  
>Please enjoy and review (it would be much appreciated ^^)<br>DISCLAIMER: If I owned Naruto… I think I would understand… How it feels to be Kishimoto… and that's where my attempt at not-so-skilled song parody ends…**

* * *

><p><strong>Flowers<strong>

It was a slow day for the Yamanaka flower shop. Usually there would be way more people coming in to buy flowers, but today, there was hardly anyone. She'd been manning the store for hours, and only 4 customers had come in. Out of those 4, only 1 had actually bought a bouquet.

It was pouring down with rain, which meant that people were less likely to go shopping for things like flowers. They weren't exactly an essential part of a shinobi, or well, any civilian's life.

"Pffft." Ino blew a raspberry. Her fringe drifted upwards, and then fell back onto her face.

Ino was lucky that she liked the store. Thank god her family owned a flower shop, instead of tending deer like the Nara or owning restaurants like the Akimichi. Ino shuddered at the thought of looking after animals all day, or having to make food for other people.

Flowers were her thing. They were beautiful things, so naturally Ino had taken a shine to them as soon her father had first brought her to the store. From that moment, Ino had known that she would always love flowers.

Ino practiced ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arranging, whenever she had free time. The flowers captivated her. In a flower, she could see meanings that most other people wouldn't be able to.

Ino was sick of being behind the counter. Taking off her apron, she stood up. She figured that her father wouldn't mind, as long as she didn't actually leave the place.

Ino walked around to the floral displays by the front of the store. She inhaled the sweet scent of the flowers, stopping to look at each individual species.

A white rose caught her eye. Ino smiled. The white rose was a symbol for many things. Innocence, purity, silence and devotion were some that sprang to mind. A white rose arrangement was simple but could convey many feelings. Traditionally, they had been the symbol of undying love, but that was red roses now.

Ino thought about one of her best friends. If anything, Hinata was a white rose. She was so sweet and shy. The undying love and devotion was represented by her relentless crush on Naruto, but the silence meant she had never told him. Like the white rose, Hinata was symbolic of love and unity.

If Hinata was the white rose, than Sakura was the yellow. Yellow was the colour of joy and warmth, of sunshine and happiness. It meant wisdom and power, two things Sakura had gained much of after training with Lady Tsunade. On the other hand, a yellow rose also meant jealousy, which made sense. There was always that sense of rivalry between Sakura and Ino. Sakura used to be jealous of her, but it had been less prevalent lately. They were friends and rivals now. Funnily enough, the yellow rose also meant friendship.

The yellow rose could also mean things like sorrow and farewells. Ino knew that before Sasuke had left Konoha, Sakura had been the last to see him. She knew that Sakura had always regretted the fact that she couldn't make him stay.

Sasuke used to be edelweiss. The small white flower represented courage, power and nobility. He used to represent those things too. Now he was a spider lily.

A spider lily, particularly a red one, was bad news. It was associated with abandonment and death. Sasuke had left the village, and now he was out to destroy it, killing every last person. He was a lost cause. Only Naruto really believed in him now.

Ino sighed. She really shouldn't dwell on thoughts like that. It only hurt her.

Moving on, Ino noticed a small shrub, with white, bell shaped blossoms. Wintergreen. Now that was Shikamaru.

Wintergreen was cool, calm and collected. It also tended to grow as a shrub, with only some developing into small trees. Probably because they weren't motivated enough, thought Ino with a small smirk.

Wintergreen was a healing plant, and a symbol of protection. Shikamaru wasn't much of a medic ninja (well he wasn't one at all) but he'd shown on many occasions that he was willing to give his life to protect others. It was one of the best things about that lazy guy.

Like Shikamaru, wintergreen was lucky. It was thought to attract romance. The mere fact that that Temari girl from Suna, who was a few years older than him, was chasing after him was evidence of Shikamaru's luck with girls. But Temari would never, ever get her Shikamaru!

Ino blushed. She had not just thought that. She totally didn't like Shikamaru. Right?

Shaking off the thought, Ino continued to inspect the flowers and plants. Neji was the blue rose. Mysterious, hopelessly in love with Tenten (or at least, that's what Ino thought) and a one of the 'royal' Hyuugas to boot! Tenten, in contrast was a snowdrop, constantly hoping Neji would ask her out.

Chouji was a daffodil. Friendly, kind and considerate, he could brighten up anyone's day. A daffodil meant respect, which is what he deserved, and gave to others in turn. It also meant chivalry. Chouji didn't quite have that skill yet, but maybe in the future, he would.

Ino smiled. She was lucky to have such a great team, even if one of them was so lazy that they tried to sleep through meetings, and the other was always eating out of what seemed to be an endless bag of chips.

Ino glanced at the clock above the counter. It was quarter to 4. She'd managed to keep up her little flower shop tour for half an hour, but she still had a while to go before she could close the shop. The shop didn't close officially until 5pm, but with the weather so bad, and the lack of customers, she could probably close up around 4:30. Rolling her eyes at the thought of another 45 minutes of boredom, Ino continued to look at the flora.

Kiba was the fun-loving red poppy. Shino, a begonia, deep in thoughts. Lee, that crazy guy, was a lotus, of course. It meant purity and eloquence, two things Lee definitely had. It also symbolized being far from your love. Metaphorically speaking, Lee was very far away from Sakura. He was in love with her, and she was in love with Sasuke/Naruto (Ino had given up trying to figure out which of the two she really loved).

Naruto. Now there was someone who was hard to figure out. At first glance, he was definitely a freesia. Childish and immature, spirited and wild. But lately, Naruto had changed. He was no longer the dead-last loser that everyone looked down upon. He had matured in ways which the rest of them hadn't.

So what was he now? Naruto wasn't the type of person you could categorise. He seemed like an open book, but there were things going on in that head of his that Ino couldn't comprehend. He was… Naruto.

A unique species.

It was a strange thought. To think that someone could go from a bratty, loud-mouthed kid, to a respected hero that everyone looked up to in such a short space of time.

A thought struck Ino. Yes, Naruto had changed. But they, meaning the rest of her friends, had too.

Thought their change wasn't as drastic as Naruto's it was definitely there. In some small way, each of them had evolved, in a sense.

Ino guessed it was because, they too, like the flowers, were growing.


End file.
